Treatment of chemical warfare agents by zero-valent iron nanoparticles and ferrate(VI)/(III) composite. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles and a composite containing a mixture of ferrate(VI) and ferrate(III) were prepared by thermal procedures. The phase compositions, valence states of iron, and particle sizes of iron-bearing compounds were determined by combination of X-ray powder diffraction, Mssbauer spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The applicability of these environmentally friendly iron based materials in treatment of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) has been tested with three representative compounds, sulfur mustard (bis(2-chlorethyl) sulfide, HD), soman ((3,3'-imethylbutan-2-yl)-methylphosphonofluoridate, GD), and O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothiolate (VX). Zero-valent iron, even in the nanodimensional state, had a sluggish reactivity with CWAs, which was also observed in low degrees of CWAs degradation. On the contrary, ferrate(VI)/(III) composite exhibited a high reactivity and complete degradations of CWAs were accomplished. Under the studied conditions, the estimated first-order rate constants ( 10(-2)s(-1)) with the ferrate(VI)/(III) composite were several orders of magnitude higher than those of spontaneous hydrolysis of CWAs (10(-8)-10(-6)s(-1)). The results demonstrated that the oxidative technology based on application of ferrate(VI) is very promising to decontaminate CWAs.

published proceedings

  • J Hazard Mater

author list (cited authors)

  • Zboril, R., Andrle, M., Oplustil, F., Machala, L., Tucek, J., Filip, J., Marusak, Z., & Sharma, V. K.

citation count

  • 38

complete list of authors

  • Zboril, Radek||Andrle, Marek||Oplustil, Frantisek||Machala, Libor||Tucek, Jiri||Filip, Jan||Marusak, Zdenek||Sharma, Virender K

publication date

  • April 2012